A quick sign of the cross, a whispered prayer, a hand extending a smartphone to capture a photo of the waxen face, and the line continues to move forward to the sound of sacred music, thousands of feet advancing on the marble of St. Peter's Basilica. "Move forward, move forward," urged the ushers when the movement slowed down, the crowd too dense.
On Wednesday, April 23, the body of Francis, the 266th pope of the Catholic Church, was placed in front of the confession altar at the center of the basilica. For three days, until his burial on Saturday, April 26, at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, the faithful and the curious can walk past his open wooden and zinc coffin, surrounded by purple, late into the night.
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